Real concern for universities

Letters

MANY established university and public service rules have changed in the last three years at the PNG University of Technology (Unitech).
The suppression of debate and expressing of opinion by academics in a free environment have been subverted.
The current Unitech management has sanctioned free flow of information and debate, which are vital for any university environment.
These privileges have been withdrawn under the current management.
While the university is cash-strapped, some highly-paid expatriate consultants have been engaged by the current management.
The public service rules pertaining to promotion from lecturer, senior lecture, associate professors to professors have been re-written and the goal posts shifted in the past three years.
Such is the case with a close associate of the vice chancellor who has been promoted from lecturer to senior lecturer, associate professor and now professor in this short span of time.
Is it ethically and professionally correct for a foreigner with questionable research papers to be gifted on a golden plate the title of professorship when well-qualified Papua New Guinean academics have been serving the university diligently for many years.
This case under-minds the vetting process for the university’s top academic posts.
The process for this appointment has broken all the processes, requirements and protocols while the Unitech council has been hood-winked into sanctioning the process and the appointment.
The current Unitech management has seen fit to create positions outside the public service rules for students on training from departments to be slotted into casual positions when the Government has been requesting for position restructure and cost-cutting measures.
The promoted professor has been seen as the shadow training officer of the university by engaging students to study in India and requesting departments to fund them
when it is beyond their funding ability.
The nepotism and cronyism, which the VC has been preaching about, have been eroded within the last three years.
It appears that the efforts of quality education, transparency and good governance has been compromised and the wings of Unitech clipped off by the captain. Every hardworking Papua New Guinean academic at Unitech or other universities should be worried about this ongoing erosion of good governance, moral and ethical issues surrounding their professional development and future of this great institution.
Where are all the staff associations?
Have they been made to drink from the poison fountain and have had their thinking and free speech muzzled?

Concerned, Via email